Talk Turkey to Me

Say goodbye to spooky season and hello to turkey season! It’s officially November which means that you should be getting your cooking supplies ready for Thanksgiving because it’s going to be here before you know it. This month we’re keeping it simple by focusing on cleaning out and getting organized. If you keep missing important emails and don’t know why, we definitely have some answers for you! We are also touching on when you should reschedule your upcoming meeting, and the response may surprise you. So, before you dive into that turkey and head into a food coma, check this out!

The Lost Mail

In today’s day and age, technology consumes us. Our work lives can revolve around computers, emails, phones, you name it! If this sounds like you, then you know how important it is to be on top of your emails. If you’re not, well, it could be detrimental. Luckily for you, we put together the best tips on how to not miss an important email again. Check it out! They may be hiding right under your nose.

Bring Out the Star

Starring specific emails can help keep them at the top of your radar. Did you know that you can do this with your contacts too? To ensure you don’t lose emails from important people, like your boss or a client, you can “white-list” or “safe-list” their contact. This allows their mail to go directly to your inbox and not some other folder or even the trash.

To Label or Not to Label

Mail systems like Outlook and Google allow users to flag, label, and categorize their emails. These features can be powerful when applied correctly. Think about when you search for emails. Do you search by person, project, timeline, or key word? Organizing your emails by sender is one effective way to sort through the chaos. Another is organizing your emails by project. There are a lot of ways to organize your inbox, but make sure you make your life easier… not harder in the process.

Make the Move

In Gmail, Google creates filters so that certain senders will be placed there rather than in the primary folder. Google creates the social and promotional folders in addition to the primary. This can be helpful in most scenarios however, sometimes the senders can be mixed up and the wrong ones can be placed in these folders. To avoid this and to avoid missing an anticipated email, get rid of the folders and send all of your mail to the primary. This way, all of your mail is in the same place and it won’t be lost as easily.

Dumpster Diving

Always be sure to check the trash, spam, and clutter folders! Computers are smart and fast but they can be too fast. They make mistakes and can place that email you have been waiting for in the wrong spot. There’s no harm in ever checking either of these folders if your mail is failing to appear in your inbox. If you don’t frequently clean out these folders, you may have to do some dumpster diving but hopefully it will lead to success.

Reschedule What You Can Control

When you’re busy, you can lose track of time and forget what deadlines or events are coming up. This can frequently occur with meetings. Although you can’t control how quickly it can creep up on you, you can control how you go about it. You can’t control a lot in this world, so when you can it should really be taken advantage of. You can read more below to see when you should consider rescheduling your upcoming meeting!

You’re Just Not Ready

It’s not usually a good idea to go into something that you don’t have enough information on. If you’re running a meeting, you should know your content inside and out as well as having a road map on where to go throughout. If you are not prepared, you’ll feel anxious or nervous. Therefore, if you’re not prepared, it’s probably in your best interest to reschedule so you don’t look completely unprofessional.

Something’s Missing

As well as not being prepared, it’s also a good idea to reschedule your meeting if you don’t have all the information you need. There’s rarely anything that’s worse than being asked a question in front of multiple people and not knowing the answer. It can be embarrassing and can also take away from your credibility. This is why it is beneficial to reschedule your meeting to a later date so that you’re able to gather as much information as you possibly can.

A Bird! A Plane!

As we’ve previously stated, you can’t control everything in the environment around you. Therefore, things can come out of the blue and completely change the dynamic of everything. If this happens to you, it’s another indicator that you should reschedule your upcoming meeting. A major event in the office or even your personal life could cause this abrupt change in dynamic so it’s okay if you need to change the time if something bigger happens. If this does happen to you, just be sure to inform everyone why you are making this change so it doesn’t look like you’re just avoiding it.